Amazon’s fall Prime event is kicking off the holiday shopping season with a bang — and tens of thousands of deals.
Once upon a time, Amazon Prime Day was only once a year, usually in July, but the deals never stop, so why limit ourselves to one sales event? That was obviously Amazon’s thinking when they announced the Prime Early Access Sale a few weeks ago — after months of rumors that the e-Commerce colossus was doubling up on Prime Day shopping holidays — with this also serving as an unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. That’s right, folks, “early Black Friday deals” start this week, because why wait for Halloween to be over?
Amazon Prime Early Access Sale runs October 11-12 in 15 countries, and as we hunker down for a veritable tsunami of deals, we have our eyes peeled and our keyboards ready. As we seek out the best deals on the best wireless earbuds — almost every bud on that list was discounted back in July — smart home devices, tablets, Chromebooks, and, of course, sales on the best Android phones, flagship and mid-range alike, we’re balancing past deals, current values, and changes in the market to ensure you get only the best discounts on the products you want.
We’re already seeing some sales alive and kicking for Amazon devices — Kindle e-readers, Fire TVs, Echo speakers and beyond — and we’ll be keeping this live blog updated throughout the next 48 hours as deals live, die, and (in some cases) live again.
The best Amazon Prime Early Access deals
00:35 – Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is $300 off + free memory upgrade
Samsung’s latest and greatest foldable hasn’t been seeing steep discounts yet — it’s only been out for two months, after all — but it’s down to $1,500 at Amazon for both the 256GB model and the 512GB configurations, for all your movie and music hoarding needs. It’s not quite as sweet as some trade-in deals carriers have been offering, but if you lack a worthwhile phone to trade in, this is probably your best bet between now and Black Friday.
Buy the 512GB Galaxy Z Fold 4 for $420 off
00:25 – Be ready for the World Series with Amazon’s Fire TV Omni series
We’re into the MLB playoffs, we’re in the thick of football season, and there’s never been more streaming services or content to watch on your smart TV. Among the systems your smart TV could run, Amazon’s Fire TV holds up surprisingly well, and the Amazon Fire TV Omni series represents Amazon’s best in-house offerings at the moment. It’s a simple TV that looks good, performs snappily, and the Fire TV interface is wonderfully intuitive for newer, more casual users who don’t have their TV streaming music and reruns six hours a day for background noise (like me).
Buy the 50″ Amazon Fire TV Omni for $110 off
00:15 – Anker’s best buds are back down to $119
Not only are the Soundcore Liberty Pro 3 ANC earbuds some of the best wireless earbuds on the market, they’re also among the most comfortable to wear, especially for long periods of time. Available in four colors — including a majestic Dusk Purple — these earbuds have only had a better deal once before, during Prime Day, but even right now, it’s a deep discount for a product that punches well above its weight class.
Buy Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro for $51 off
23:00 – Get $40 off the Kindle Paperwhite
Hot on the heels of the high-end Kindle Scribe’s release, several of the most popular Kindle models are enjoying some big price cuts on Amazon. Probably the most noteworthy deal right now is on the Kindle Paperwhite, which fared extremely well in our roundup of the best Amazon Kindles and its 30% off for you to grab and load up with e-books and Audible audiobooks. The 8GB model is $100 and the 16GB model is $105, so why not splurge and double your storage?
